1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a portable terminal and to a management system for managing the portable terminal, and relates more particularly to a portable terminal that is carried by a worker working in a predefined area, and to a management system suitable for managing workers through the portable terminal.
2. Related Art
A typical workplace where plural workers work generally has a workplace manager that is responsible for managing the workers and knowing what each of the workers is doing. Systems in which the workers enter the tasks they are currently doing have also been developed to lighten the load of the manager. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-H07-325870.
With the system taught in JP-A-H07-325870, tasks to be performed by a worker are displayed on a display screen, and each time the worker completes a displayed task and proceeds to the next task, the worker uses a pointing device to input information indicating a change in the task being performed.
In order for the workers to input information to the system taught in JP-A-H07-325870, each worker must be taught how to operate the system, and the wrong information may be input as a result of operating errors. Significant effort is therefore required to train the workers in system operation and to correct operating errors.
To solve this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2008-293168 teaches a task management system that enables reliably recording the work status of plural workers without forcing the workers to perform a complicated operation as described below.
The task management system taught in JP-A-2008-293168 has a pickup device for capturing the speech of workers in the work area, a speech recognition device for recognizing and converting the speech acquired by the pickup device to text data, and a storage control device that correlates information acquired from the text data produced by the speech recognition device with information indicating the time the speech corresponding to the text data was captured by the pickup device, and storing the acquired information and time for each worker in a history storage device.
This system can accurately record the speech of workers in the work area because information acquired from the speech of the workers in the work area is stored correlated to the time the speech was acquired. As a result, when a worker reports by voice, text data can be generated from the speech and information related to the work status can be recorded. Work status information can also be passively recorded without the workers actively reporting their work status by capturing the speech directed by workers to customers or other workers and acquiring data relating to this speech. Work status information can thus be reliably recorded without requiring workers to perform a special operation or task for recording the work status.
The terminal device and task management device described below are taught in JP-A-2008-293168 as components of the task management system.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of a terminal device 2 according to the related art taught in JP-A-2008-293168.
As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal device 2 has a control unit 201 that controls various parts of the terminal device 2, and memory 203 that dynamically or statically stores data and programs processed by the control unit 201.
The control unit 201 internally stores speech recognition middleware 202, and has a function for converting employee speech captured by a microphone 24 to text data by executing the speech recognition middleware 202. The control unit 201 also controls other parts of the terminal device 2 by reading and executing firmware 204 stored in memory 203.
The terminal device 2 has a speech generation device 205 that generates a speech signal from information input as text data as controlled by the control unit 201, and an amplifier unit 206 that amplifies the speech signal generated by the speech generation device 205. The speech signal amplified by the amplifier unit 206 is input to the earphone 23 of the main unit 21, and the audio is output from the earphone 23 to the ear of the worker.
The terminal device 2 also has an amplifier unit 207 that amplifies the speech signal output from the microphone 24, and an A/D converter 208 that converts the analog audio signal amplified by the amplifier unit 207 to a digital audio data. The converted digital audio data is output from the A/D converter 208 to the control unit 201, and the control unit 201 converts the input digital audio data to text data using a function of the speech recognition middleware 202.
The speech generation device 205 has a function for converting input text data to a speech signal in the same language. More specifically, when Japanese text data is input, the speech generation device 205 executes a speech synthesis process that generates a Japanese speech signal based on the text data by referring to an internally stored speech synthesis dictionary. If the speech generation device 205 is configured with speech synthesis dictionaries for other languages, such as Chinese, English, or French, the speech generation device 205 can also generate speech signals in the same language as the language of the input text data. This configuration can output speech in languages other than Japanese as a result of the task management device 3 sending text data in Chinese or English, for example, to the terminal device 2, and the terminal device 2 receiving the text data and generating a speech signal based on the received text data. If there is an employee whose first language is not Japanese, for example, speech in the employee's language can be output from the earphone 23 to issue instructions or communicate with the employee.
Based on the audio signal output from the microphone 24, the control unit 201 that executes the speech recognition middleware 202 recognizes the speech by applying phoneme analysis, for example, in a predetermined language (such as Japanese in this example), and generates and outputs text data in that language (Japanese in this example).
If the speech recognition middleware 202 is rendered compatible with other languages by providing data for phoneme analysis of languages other than Japanese, the control unit 201 that executes the speech recognition middleware 202 can also recognize speech signals in other languages, such as Chinese or English, and can also generate and output text data in the same language.
The terminal device 2 has a wireless LAN baseband unit 211, a wireless LAN modem unit 213, and a wireless LAN RF unit 214 as functional units for creating a wireless LAN to which a task management device 3 is also connected.
The wireless LAN baseband unit 211 generates packets containing information input from the control unit 201. The wireless LAN modem unit 213 modulates the packets generated by the wireless LAN baseband unit 211 and outputs the modulated packets to the wireless LAN RF unit 214. The wireless LAN RF unit 214 transmits the modulated signal generated by the wireless LAN modem unit 213 through a wireless LAN antenna 215 as a RF signal.
The wireless LAN baseband unit 211 includes MAC address memory 212 that stores a MAC (Media Access Control) address unique to the terminal device 2, and the MAC address stored in the MAC address memory 212 is contained in the packets generated by the wireless LAN baseband unit 211. This MAC address is used to identify plural terminal devices 2 when controlling communication over the wireless LAN.
The wireless LAN RF unit 214 also extracts and outputs the modulated signal from the wireless signal received through the wireless LAN antenna 215 to the wireless LAN modem unit 213. The wireless LAN modem unit 213 demodulates the modulated signal and extracts the packets, and the wireless LAN baseband unit 211 outputs the information contained in the packets generated by the wireless LAN modem unit 213 to the control unit 201.
Note that the parts shown in FIG. 4 operate using drive power supplied from a battery 216 in the main unit 21.
The terminal device 2 configured as shown in FIG. 4 executes the functions described below through the interaction of hardware and software components.
Wireless communication function: The terminal device 2 renders a wireless communication function that renders a wireless LAN, to which the task management device 3 is also connected, for sending and receiving text data and information for identifying an individual terminal device 2 of a particular MAC address as a result of the control unit 201 controlling the wireless LAN baseband unit 211, the MAC address memory 212, the wireless LAN modem unit 213, the wireless LAN RF unit 214, and the wireless LAN antenna 215.
Speech output function: The terminal device 2 renders a speech output function that outputs speech from the earphone 23 as a result of the control unit 201 controlling the speech generation device 205 and the amplifier unit 206 and outputting a speech signal from the amplifier unit 206 to the earphone 23.
Speech recognition function: The terminal device 2 renders a speech recognition function that converts employee speech picked up by the microphone 24 to text data and outputs the text data as a result of the control unit 201 controlling the amplifier unit 207 and A/D converter 208 and the control unit 201 also executing the speech recognition middleware 202.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the task management device 3.
As shown in FIG. 5, the task management device 3 has a control unit 301 that controls various parts of the task management device 3, and memory 302 that dynamically or statically stores data and programs processed by the control unit 301. Connected to the control unit 301 are a display processing unit 303 that presents different display screens on the display 31, a network interface unit 304 for sending and receiving data through a wireless communication unit 32, a storage unit 305 that stores the program executed by the control unit 301, an I/O interface unit 306 for connecting external devices to the task management device 3, and a key input device 307 that is external to the task management device 3.
As controlled by the control unit 301, the display processing unit 303 generates and outputs to the display 31 video signals for displaying various screens on the display 31.
The display 31 has a display screen such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) device, and displays images and text based on the video signal input from the display processing unit 303.
The storage unit 305 is a storage device that uses a semiconductor storage device or a recording medium enabling reading and writing data magnetically or optically, and statically stores programs that are run by the control unit 301 and data relating to said programs, for example.
The network interface unit 304 is connected to the wireless communication unit 32, and exchanges data with the terminal device 2 through the wireless communication unit 32 as controlled by the control unit 301.
The wireless communication unit 32 is a device that renders a wireless LAN in conjunction with the terminal device 2 in a work area such as an amusement park 100, and has a built-in antenna, RF unit, modem unit, and baseband unit, for example, for communicating using the protocol of the wireless LAN.
The I/O interface unit 306 is an interface for connecting external devices to the task management device 3, and in this example has a printer 33 and a storage device 4 connected thereto. By controlling the storage device 4 through the I/O interface unit 306, the control unit 301 can process data in a database stored in the storage device 4, including such operations as storing, searching, retrieving, and updating data.
The control unit 301 also controls the printer 33 through the I/O interface unit 306, and causes the printer 33 to print and output various forms.
The key input device 307 is a device having text and numeric keys, or function keys to which specific functions are assigned, and generates and outputs to the control unit 301 operation signals corresponding to the keys operated by the operator.
The task management device 3 configured as shown in FIG. 5 executes the functions described below through the interaction of hardware and software components.
Wireless communication function: The task management device 3 renders a wireless communication function in conjunction with the wireless communication unit 32 for exchanging text data and information uniquely identifying a particular terminal device 2 with the terminal device 2 as a result of the control unit 301 controlling the network interface unit 304.
Schedule management function: The task management device 3 stores schedule data input from the key input device 307 in the storage unit 305 through a function of the control unit 301. This schedule data is input by date and employee, and is stored in the storage unit 305. When outputting the schedule is indicated by operating the key input device 307, for example, the control unit 301 controls the display processing unit 303 to display the schedule on the display 31, and controls the printer 33 through the I/O interface unit 306 to print and output a hard copy of the schedule of the specified employee on the specified date.
Database management function: The task management device 3 accesses a database in the storage device 4 through the I/O interface unit 306 by means of the control unit 301 to, for example, store, search, extract, update, or delete data in a database stored in the storage device 4.
History storage control function: Based on text data received from the terminal device 2 through the wireless communication unit 32 and data for identifying the terminal device 2, the task management device 3 acquires information related to the work history of the employee wearing the terminal device 2, and based on this information updates the data in the storage device 4, by means of the control unit 301.
History output function: The task management device 3 references data in the storage device 4 through the I/O interface unit 306, and causes the printer 33 to print and output data from the database stored in the storage device 4 in a particular format, by means of the control unit 301.
As a means for detecting the position of the terminal device (that is, the location of the worker that has the terminal device) in the terminal device described in JP-A-2008-293168, paragraph (0057) in JP-A-H07-325870 says “In addition to these devices, wireless communication tags for position detection may be disposed to hallways and walls, for example, in the amusement park 100, and these wireless communication tags can be detected by the terminal device 2 and the position determined. In this situation, the terminal device 2 wirelessly sends position information together with the text data to the task management device 3, and the task management device 3 may store the wirelessly transmitted text data and position information in the work history database 41 without needing to identify the position of the employee. In this configuration an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag that uses a frequency in the 900 MHz band or 2.45 GHz band, for example, may be used as the wireless communication tags” (in Japanese).
The position data that can be detected by this method in which “wireless communication tags (such as RFID tags) for position detection may be disposed to hallways and walls, for example, and these wireless communication tags can be detected by the terminal device 2 and the position determined” is limited to the absolute position data for the location of the terminal device.
However, as the uses for such terminal devices have expanded, acquiring relative position data (how fast or how many steps the terminal device moved in what direction for a specific time (at a specific time)) for the terminal device and not just the absolute position data for the location of the terminal device has become desirable, but a terminal device enabling easily acquiring relative position data for the terminal device has not been achieved.